Questions and Answers

QUESTIONS: What kind of a Visa are the Chinese couple trying to get?  Do they want to stay in Korea permanently?  What is their educational background? 

ANSWERS:

They are trying to stay on with ____ University as researchers. They only want to stay for another year or so. He has a PhD... from China's most prestigious university and she is writing her doctorate thesis paper..., after which she will graduate with a PhD.... They're both way smarter than me.

QUESTIONS:

Where do they stand on their baptism?  What is standing in their way?

ANSWERS:

They're going to get baptized, the only question is if they get baptized before they go back to China. If they can stay, they are planning on being baptized this month or next month. The fear with China is twofold. 1. They worry about being able to maintain the habits they have of living according to church standards in China.  2. They worry about the potential difficulty of finding a job (they both studied in tracks that lead into working for the government, because that's where the best jobs are, and you can’t have a govt job unless you are in the communist party... and you can't be in the party unless you are not religiously affiliated).

QUESTION:

How is your district doing?

ANSWER:

The district is not doing so hot. Things aren't horrible in most ways, but the sisters are having [some struggles].... and I can't really do much about it because they are sisters and I'm not a sister training leader, and they are hours away. 

QUESTION:

How is your new companion?  I guess his brother was in T's mission.  Where is he from? I believe he has been out 6 months, which should mean he is still working hard to understand the language?  

ANSWER:

That's right, his brother used to be the AP is what I heard. He's doing good! Any transfer requires adjustment and this is no exception, but he's doing alright so far. He's a hard worker, for which I'm thankful. His Korean is fine for where he is at, but that is a pretty early stage, so that's a little hard for him. His biggest problem is just that he beats himself up. He's got the skills and the drive he needs, just not the confidence. He'll get there.

Love you!

Elder Whitlock

Best of the Best

Chinese investigators are doing great. I'm confident he's going to be a big leader in China. Their faith is incredible. We are still waiting to find out if they can stay in Korea and get baptized or not. His wife also has the gift of prophecy. Transfer calls were this weekend (I'm staying, still the district leader working with someone I've never met named Elder B) and in the prayer she said something to the effect of "Heavenly Father, we know that Elder J will leave..." and sure enough later that night... in the same prayer she said that the best thing that happened to them since they got to Korea was to learn about the gospel.

So like I said. First an opening mission president in Shanghai, then an area 70 over China.

Z, Me, Elder J, and J. The best of the best.

I do get to workout. I do a lot of strength oriented exercise because I still hate running.  I finally bought a weight a couple weeks ago and I'm already seeing improvement.  I'm usually sore.  Also, every night (when I'm not doing district leader stuff,...) we do an ab workout from Insanity or P90x.  I can handle Ab Ripper and Cardio Abs ok, but Insane Abs kicks my butt.

Summer gets pretty hot. We have air conditioning in our house, so that is nice, but outside I'm always sweating. It is humid, but we are getting close to the rainy season, so the humidity should go way up. 

My opinion [about rain] has changed during my mission but lately I love it. If we must be wet, and it is hot enough that that is the case, then it may as well be water. The hottest part of the year is the next two months.

Love you too,
Elder Whitlock

7th of July

Last week was interesting. One of the guys in my district, Elder K had to leave for three days of military training (for those of you who don't know, all men in Korea have to serve in the military for two years and then they remain a part of the reserve for years after that, during which time they need to return for occasional training) so I was in a threesome for a while. Since we combined our appointments, we were pretty busy teaching, which was a nice change of pace.

 

I also went on exchange with Elder R, who is serving in my greenie area of Jungnang right now. He reminds me a lot of Hunter (who, holy Moses, only has what? Three months left?!). He taught me about the mechanics of _____ing goats and cows (farming? ranching?). I clearly didn't learn super well.

 

Highlights of this week: I got to translate for one of our Chinese investigators in fast and testimony meeting yesterday! He knocked it out of the park, actually got tears from some of the members. They'll get there.

 

Also, for the 4th of July, I will be symbolically representing America, in all of her benevolence. My country has given so much to the world that I decided to spot the district for Outback today. 'Murica! The fact that no one was willing to go unless I payed only factored into said decision in a mild way. We are going to bring Bang! along with us as well, and kind of see how the meal unfolds. Should be pretty sick.

 

Speaking of sick, we got back from fast Sunday jundo yesterday to break our fast and my companion pulled out his yo (Koreans sleep on fold out beds on the ground) and laid down. No other problems that day, but 20 minutes into meal time he requested a blessing. Just shaking under my hands. His lower back was killing, his hands started to go numb, and his legs were shaking uncontrollably. 김종복, our ward mission leader, and I took him to the ER in time for him to puke (like a champ) all over the floor. An x-ray, CT scan, and a urine sample later, it became clear that he had a kidney stone. I heard they were bad, but President made it sound like one of the worst things that can happen to a human being. I've decided that this is sufficient experience with the things, and that I'm going to drink more water. He's doing fine now. The doctors are having him take some pills for 10 days and then if he hasn't passed it they'll talk about other options, but it looks like everything is fine.

 

The coolest thing about it all was how little it cost. The whole experience, drugs, specialist fees, tests and all, was less than 400$ without insurance or government subsidization. 0.0

 

Happy Summer everybody!

 

Elder Whitlock

Better

I've got obedience nailed to the wall. I act without knowing on things that I hope are true... Just keep going out and doing my part and waiting for something to save me.

 

This week was better though. Not good. Better. There are two ways I feel like I've improved on my mission. One is humility. The other is endurance. I can keep enduring.

 

Love you so much... Hope you enjoyed Korra for me.

 

Elder Whitlock

Rough Week

(Referring to Exodus 17:9–13 )  ...That's the tough part, really. Holding up your arms when you can't feel any other hands there. And then another missionary comes along and jumps on and you've got to hold him up. Then another. And you start to get tired, but there's no relief in sight. Your arms are shaking, but you're only 7 months out.

I'm doing about as good as that might sound. I used to think that President Scoresby’s thing about Korean missions being a sort of like being a prisoner of war was overdramatic, but I feel that way sometimes. Trapped between a rock and a hard place and tallying days til I can get out. I'm about guaranteed another transfer at least and I might be around for a while yet. 

Uncle Joseph wrote me an email one time and he also encouraged me to check out section 76. Pretty genius stuff, for sure. The bummer in the situation is that I'm not one of those people to whom it is given to see and understand (D&C 76: 116-117). Or do much of anything really. I hear about spiritual gifts and revelations and all of that stuff, but it doesn't happen to me. Even the things in my patriarchal blessing that were promised me aren't mine. I'm just a massive ball of "lack".

This week has been a harder one. I usually give happy banter because I'm genuinely happy, but this week was hard. Things will be better next week.

Still working on the couple from China. We taught them about exaltation this week and the man told me that they want to be baptized, they are just deciding when. He said something to the effect of them waiting for good news, which we interpret as they are having a baby or something and are waiting on some kind of results to make their decision. If you want to shoot me your contacts email or his name or something, then that would be cool. I'll let them know about him.

Thank you so much, as always, for the support and love. I love you, too.

Elder Whitlock

The Briefest of Weeks

New ideas this week:

• Jundo, skip the handshake. First time I tried it I had the best contact I've had in weeks.  
• Restart English class after a two week break; advertise a storm, get something new started, and re-sort everybody to the level where they belong.

Last P-day was probably the best of my mission. We went to the temple, then to Outback, then to a sick museum.

Pictures inbound.

Outback was great, as usual. Didn't end up going for the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under for time reasons, so me and my companion (transfer calls came and went, and we are staying) will be returning for one later. I ordered a cheese fries right off the bat, but there was a communication problem with the waiter (poor guy did his best) and so the manager ended up giving them to us for free after we asked about the lack thereof. Epic. We had some trouble finishing them, so we started playing a... game where when you lose you take a fry, then remembered that we still had our tags on and just attacked. We came. We ate. We conquered.

    

The museum was also sweet. It is underneath Gwanghwamun (Korean Time Square) and is a combo deal for the two most famous and loved Korean Heroes. King Saejong and Lee Seongsin. King Saejong was cool and stuff. He invented the Korean alphabet and reigned during a the golden age of Korea, sponsoring advancements in science, music, and art and establishing 7 garrisons that made the country more secure. He was fine, but Lee Seongsin is the MAN!

His part of the museum was all about himself and Korean naval warfare. They were pretty into artillery and were really innovative. The coolest inventions were something called a turtle ship (look it up) and this rig that lauched a whole bunch of arrows via rockets. Mega cool. Captain Lee himself was also sweet. He never lost a battle and saved the country multiple times. He innovated, wrote, went to prison on false charges, wielded a massive sword and was generally a boss. Look him up.

Also, I got that camel you sent. His name is Arphaxad. Thanks!

Love you!

Humpdydoodledandy

Bum. bum. bum. Another year bites the dust!

Can't imagine that tastes super good. At least not as good as the McDonalds/Coldstone combo meal that I got last Thursday. Elder S, my district leader, is from the same MTC generation as me, so we celebrated together right. On exchange. Our area is one of the biggest in the mission and covers several cities and villages, and, since we had no appointments, we decided to go scout one of them out. Currently, we are infamous in Chuncheon, so everybody knows who we are, most have been jundoed to by us, and no one is really interested in talking. Gapyeong was almost a breath of fresh air. All the people that we talked to were very nice and down to talk for a while. The only problem is that there weren't many of them. We did find this statue though. It's a monument garden to veterans from Ceder City, Utah of all places. Elder S used to live there.

Anyway, without people we came back to Chuncheon and grabbed the above mentioned dinner and did some regular stuff til the end of the day.

This week Elder Quentin L. Cook came to town, so Seoul and Seoul South missions had a combined conference. He talked about inviting being success and how we should treat new missionaries like real missionaries and about being warm and friendly with everybody.

We stayed the night in Gireum house again. Elder V is the last one there from when I was there, and he's having a rough time. The feeling that I got from the visit is that everyone in the mission is struggling pretty hard, or at least most of my friends.

After Elder Cook, we got to visit with other missionaries for a bit. I saw a lot of usuals from the Seoul Mission + Conner Brienholt (briefly) and Lauren Brocious (who went to AF with me and was in my companion's district, I guess). Super good to see everybody.

Anyway, back to the decreasing efficency thing. I've been thinking a lot about innovation this week. We are digging a hole here, with next to no results besides the increasing fury of the populace. I'm trying to find new finding methods that can supplement all the jundo that we can't escape.

A few ideas:

Increase the controversy level of our jundos, so that people not only have but are more willing to share an opinion and invest in the conversation.

Embrace the counter culture image and start hammering the Apostasy message harder.

Combo Streetboarding and English Class. Ask a simple question "Does God exist?" in English at a University and let people vote, and give them English flyers while it happens.

Heck, I may even try soapboxing once Elder J is gone (he's less than down). Anything to try to change.

Any super great ideas pop up, let me know.

Love you all and have a great week!